MELVILLE --- HOUSE --- PUBLISHING ---------------------- --- Rights --- … · 2018. 4. 6. · Page 8 Strange Stars David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded Jason Heller

------------------------- MELVILLE ------------ HOUSE --------------- PUBLISHING -------------------------------- Rights ----------- --- Guide --------------- London ----------- --- 2018 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING

Brooklyn, NY • London, UK

Rights Guide

London International Book Fair, 2018

Contact us at [email protected]

Find a list of our subagents at www.mhpbooks.com/rights

mailto:rights%40mhpbooks.com?subject=http://www.mhpbooks.com/rights

SPRING 2018Habeas Data 7

Strange Stars 8

A Spy in Canaan 9

Culture as Weapon 10

Underground Fugue 12

Lacking Character 13

Who’s Who When Everyone Is Someone Else 14

Empire of Light 15

FALL 2018

Chalk 18

The Talented Ribkins 20

Death and Other Holidays 21

Let Me Be Like Water 22

Ways to Hide in Winter 23

THE LAST INTERVIEWJulia Child 26

Kathy Acker 27

Hunter S. Thompson 28

Christopher Hitchens 29

BACKLIST FICTIONThe Book of Formation 31

The Mirror Thief 31

The Insides 32

Not on Fire, but Burning 32

Rules for Werewolves 33

Good on Paper 33

The Monster’s Daughter 34

The Subsidiary 34

BACKLIST NON-FICTIONAntifa 36

Eurovision! 36

Becoming Leonardo 37

Cause 37

Why I Am Not a Feminist 38

Viking Economics 38

Brolliology 39

English Uprising 39

The Money Cult 40

The Destruction of Hillary Clinton 40

We, Robots 41

The Man Who Designed the Future 41

SPRING 2018

NON-FICTION

Habeas DataPrivacy vs. the Rise of Surveillance TechCyrus Farivar

“Farivar’s work is essential, smart, and cogent.” —Cory Doctorow

Habeas Data is the story of how the explosive growth of surveillance technol-ogy—and its embrace by various civic authorities—has outpaced our under-standing of the ethics, mores, and laws of privacy . . .

Award-wining tech reporter Cyrus Farivar makes the case by taking the ten historic court cases that essentially defined our rights of privacy and matching them against the new capabilities of modern technology. It’s an approach that

combines the charge of a legal thriller with the shock of the daily headlines.

A dazzling exposé that journeys from Oakland, California, to the halls of the Supreme Court, to the back of a squad car, Habeas Data combines deft reportage, deep research, and original interviews to offer an X-ray diagnostic of our current surveillance state.

Praise for Habeas Data

“Essential reading for anyone concerned with how technology has overrun privacy.” —Mitch Kapor, co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation

“Part deep-dive into how everything from your smartphone to your home can be used as a surveillance tool, and part crash-course in the court cases that both help and fail to constrain the government’s most privacy-invasive activities.” —Robyn Greene, policy counsel, Open Technology Institute at New America

CYRUS FARIVAR is the Senior Business Editor at Ars Technica and the author of The Internet of Elsewhere. He has also reported for The Economist, Wired, The New York Times, and others.

On Sale May 2018 /// Hardcover /// 304 pages

Rights Available: World, Performance

Strange StarsDavid Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi ExplodedJason Heller

“Full of cosmic wisdom that will open your mind to alien melodies . . . a totally indispensable guide.” —Charlie Jane Anders, author of All The Birds In The Sky

In Strange Stars, Jason Heller recasts sci-fi and pop music as parallel cultural forces that depended on one another to expand the horizons of what could be created with words, sounds, and out-of-this-world imagery.

In doing so, he presents a whole generation of revered musicians as the sci-fi-ob-sessed conjurers they really were: from Sun Ra lecturing on the black man in the cos-mos at UC Berkeley, to Pink Floyd jamming live over the BBC’s broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing; from a wave of Star Wars disco chart toppers, to Jimi Hendrix distill-ing the “purplish haze” he discovered in a pulp novel into psychedelic song.

Strange Stars brings to life an era of un-paralleled and unearthly creativity—in magazines, novels, films, records, and con-certs—to point out that the nerds have been winning all along.

Praise for Strange Stars

“There’s never been anything like Strange Stars before . . . Brilliant.” —Rob Sheffield, author of On Bowie

“An ultra-engaging dive into science fiction’s impact on the rock and pop music we know and love.” —Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic

JASON HELLER is a Hugo Award–winning writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and The Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. His latest novel is Taft 2012. He lives in Denver.

On Sale June 2018 /// Hardcover /// 272 pages

Rights Available: World, Audio, Performance

A Spy in CanaanHow the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights MovementMarc Perrusquia

“A triumph of investigative reporting . . . A Spy in Canaan brims with new details about the inner workings of the movement in Memphis and beyond.” —The Washington Post

Renowned photographer Ernest Withers captured some of the most stunning moments of the civil rights era—from the age-defining snapshot of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., riding one of the first integrated buses in Montgomery, to the

haunting photo of Emmett Till’s great-uncle pointing an accusing finger at his nephew’s killers. He had a front row seat to history as a man trusted and beloved by the movement’s inner circle . . . but few people know that Withers was also an informant for the FBI.

Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of King’s assassination, A Spy in Canaan explores the life, motivations, and legacy of the fasci-nating figure Ernest Withers, as well as the dark shadow that era’s culture of surveil-lance has cast on our own time.

Praise for A Spy in Canaan

“Groundbreaking and at times shocking.” —Hampton Sides, author of

Hellhound on His Trail

“Powerfully and perceptively, this remarkable true-life detective story shows how many lives can be damaged by secret intelligence operatives run amok.” —David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Bearing the Cross

“An important contribution to the history of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.” —Athan Theoharis, author of Spying on Americans

MARC PERRUSQUIA is a journalist living in Memphis, Tennessee. He has won numerous national awards for feature writing and investigative reporting.

On Sale Now /// Hardcover /// 368 pages

Rights: World, Audio

Culture as WeaponThe Art of Influence in Everyday LifeNato Thompson

“A brilliant and scathing take no prisoners critique.” —Laura Poitras, filmmaker, Citizenfour

In an era when real-estate developers preach the power of art to change soci-ety, and when innovative capitalist design has come to be called art, one has to appreciate—and have a healthy suspicion of—just how far art has come.

In Culture As Weapon, Nato Thompson, one of the country’s preeminent art activists, guides us through today’s complex and all-consuming culture wars. In doing so he offers an eye-opening account of the way advertising, media, and politics use the tools of art to mystify and move us, and a crucial contribution to the study of the forces that have turned culture into big business—and therefore everyone’s business.

Praise for Culture as Weapon

“The book’s landing during the early days of the Trump administration couldn’t have been more impeccable . . . a compelling manual for determining how the manipula-tion begins.” —Los Angeles Times

“Read it and discover exactly how mistaken is our assumption that human creativity brings us always closer to some earthly utopia.” —Thomas Frank, author of What’s The Matter With Kansas?

“A powerful, bracing, important read.” —Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

NATO THOMPSON is an author and curator. He currently works as Artistic Director of Philadelphia Contemporary. Before that he was Artistic Director at Cre-ative Time, where he worked since 2007. His other books include Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century, and the speculative fantasy novel, Marshsong.

On Sale Now /// Paperback /// 288 pages

Rights: World, Audio, Performance

Rights Sold: Japanese (Shunju-Sha), Korean (FlatB)

FICTION

Underground FugueMargot Singer

Winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award

“Extraordinarily accomplished . . . a pleasure to read from beginning to end.” —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of March

Esther has fled New York for London—partly to escape her buckling marriage, partly to care for her dying mother. Sneaking out of the house for a cigarette on her first night, she sees a young man, wet and muddy, letting himself into the residence next door. Their eyes connect as he slips inside.

The encounter sparks Esther’s curiosity about her mother’s neighbors: Amir, the moody college student she saw sneaking in, and Amir’s father, Javad—a neuroscientist from Iran. A tentative friendship blossoms between the two families, but when terrorists attack London’s tube and bus lines, Esther finds her relationship with Javad strained by her gnawing suspicions about Amir . . . suspicions that will ultimately upend the future, and reveal the deep fault lines of the past.

Sweeping, suspenseful, and exquisitely written, Underground Fugue is a powerful testament to how human connection can survive history’s most fearsome echoes.

Praise for Underground Fugue

“Constructed with depth and richness . . . Singer’s London emerges as a place of missed connections, miscommunications, and misinterpretations.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Subtle, affecting . . . continues to reverberate in the mind after its final words.” —The Columbus Dispatch

MARGOT SINGER won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and the Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers for her story collection, The Pale of Settlement. Underground Fugue is her first novel.



Lacking CharacterCurtis White

“A master of bewitchments.” —Paul Auster

Curtis White’s long awaited return to fiction reminds us that the founder of one of American literature’s most vibrant and innovative movements is still the king of “transcendent buffoonery.”

The story begins when a masked man appears in the night at the door of the Mar-quis, proclaiming a matter of life and death: “I stand falsely accused of an atrocity!”

Except he’s not, really; he’s just trying to get the attention of the Marquis (a video game–playing burnout) to help him enroll in some community college vocation-al classes. And so the exchange gets badly botched, and our masked man is soon lost in a maddening America, encountering its absurdities at every turn, and cursing his cruel fate.

Praise for Lacking Character

“Raw, rude, and rowdy metaphysical slap-stick, packed with buffoonery, frantic, at times wistful.” —Rikki Ducornet

“Marvelous.” —Mark Leyner

Praise for the novels of Curtis White

“Curtis White writes out of an admirable intellectual sophistication combined with viscerality, pain, and humor.” —John Barth

“Cogent, acute, beautiful, and true.” —David Foster Wallace

“Curtis White’s fiction presents a scintillant, ironic surface, one that is barely able to contain the bleakness of American fin-de-siècle exhaustion, which latter is his essential theme.” —Gilbert Sorrentino

CURTIS WHITE has published seven earlier books of fiction, including Mem-ories of My Father Watching TV. His nonfiction includes The Middle Mind, The Science Delusion, and We, Robots. His essays have appeared in Harper’s Maga-zine, Orion, Tricycle, and Playboy.



Page 13

Who’s Who When Everyone Is Someone ElseC.D. Rose

“Extraordinary. Endlessly inventive, wickedly intelligent, funny and melancholic.” —Luke Kennard, author of The Transition

In an unnamed Middle European city, an unnamed author has arrived to give a series of lectures at an unnamed university on the subject of “forgotten books.” He’s agreed to the lectureship mainly because he wants to visit the grave of his favorite writer.

But when he gets there, the professor who invited him—also unnamed—isn’t there. He was just there a moment ago, but now he’s gone. No one knows where the grave of the famous writer is, either.

So begins this novel, hilariously spoofing modernist literature even as it tells a stirring—and eerily suspenseful—story about someone desperate to prove the redeeming power of books.

Praise for Who’s Who When Everyone Is Someone Else

“An intricate exploration of literary intrigue, suspense and levity.” —Eley Williams, author of Attrib. and Other Stories

Praise for The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure

“Invaluable . . . Rose writes with wit, playfulness and an impressive knowledge . . . an author . . . whom Borges and Max Beerbohm would have admired.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

C. D. ROSE is the author of The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure. He lives in England.



Rights Sold: French (Editions du Seiul)

Empire of LightMichael Bible

“Michael Bible has the golden hand of Carson McCullers and the joyous cosmic heart of Richard Brautigan . . . a truly beautiful book.” —William Boyle, author of Gravesend and The Lonely Witness

After an adolescent prank leads to a stranger’s death, Alvis Maloney rambles westward. He lands in a small North Carolina town and falls in love—in love with his neighbor Molly, with a lonesome quarterback called Miles, with a whole community of enduring misfits and losers.

But at the same time, another life takes shape in Maloney’s dreamlike visions: a horse named Forever, a princess with hypochondria, and an electric city that’s always just out of reach. As these two promises of home fight for their hold on Maloney, the story ca-reens toward disaster, and in the end Maloney must choose between love and redemption.

From the author Electric Literature called “one of the most interesting and exciting new novelists in years,” Michael Bible’s Em-pire of Light blooms with mystical imagina-tion and a soaring, hopeful heart.

Praise for Empire of Light

“Bible bathes [a] dark story of teenage rebel-lion in an otherworldly light.” —Publishers Weekly

“Michael Bible, much like Denis Johnson and Barry Hannah, renders the familiar in surprising ways, and the many turns of Empire of Light result in a euphoric, one-of-a-kind novel.” —Arkansas International

“Bible’s style is unique: swift, mythic without pretense, eccentric but focused.” —LitHub

MICHAEL BIBLE is originally from North Carolina. His work has appeared in the Oxford American, The Paris Review Daily, Al-Jazeera America, ESPN The Magazine, and New York Tyrant Magazine. He is a former bookseller at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, and now lives in New York.

One Sale Now /// Paperback /// 112 pages


FALL 2018

NON-FICTION

ChalkThe Art and Erasure of Cy TwomblyJoshua Rivkin

This first biography of Cy Twombly, one of the most important and least understood American artists of the 20th century, explores the enduring mysteries of his work and life.

Chalk follows the life and career of the great American artist Cy Twombly, from his life as a young painter, to his expatriate years in Italy; from his obsession with myths and history, to his struggle for recognition. Twombly carefully man-aged his own image, writing almost nothing about his life and work, and giving

only a handful of interviews. Through years of scholarship and archival research, first-person interviews, and a sensitive eye to Twombly’s art, Joshua Rivkin—who received a Fulbright grant to pursue this story—separates the myth from the reality to bring to life a more complicated and fas-cinating Twombly than we’ve ever known.

JOSHUA RIVKIN’s poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in the New Yorker, Slate, Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. A former Fulbright Fellow in Rome, Italy, he has most recently worked as a poetry editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and a Resident Associate at the National Humanities Center in Research in Triangle Park, NC.

On Sale October 2018 /// Hardcover /// 400 pages


FICTION

The Talented RibkinsLadee Hubbard

Winner of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award Winner of the William Faulkner - William Wisdom Prize

Winner of the 2017 Ernest J. Gaines Literary Prize

“Ladee Hubbard’s original and wildly inventive novel is in a class by itself.” —Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Bluest Eye

At seventy-two, Johnny Ribkins has just one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss . . . or else.

What may or not be useful to him is that he comes from an African-American family who possess strange superpowers. For example, Johnny’s father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin breathes fire. And Johnny himself can make perfect maps of any space you name, whether he’s been there or not.

Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s famous essay “The Talented Tenth” and fuelled by Ladee Hubbard’s marvelously original imagination, The Talented Ribkins is a big-hearted debut novel about race, class, politics, and the unique gifts that, while they may cause some prob-lems from time to time, bind a family together.

Praise for The Talented Ribkins

“A rip-roaring adventure.” —Entertainment Weekly

“If you love the works of Paul Beatty and Colson Whitehead, you’ll enjoy Ladee Hub-bard’s wholly unique view of family and legacy . . . dazzling.” —Essence Magazine

“A quirky, bittersweet comedy.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

LADEE HUBBARD is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. She lives in New Orleans.

On Sale August 2018 /// Paperback /// 304 pages

Rights: Translation

Rights Sold: French (Belfond)

Death and Other HolidaysMarci Vogel

Winner of the 2017 Miami Book Fair / de Groot Prize

“Beautifully conceived and beautifully executed. Marci Vogel is an artist in complete control of her materials.” —Percival Everett, author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier

Funny, tender, and wholly original, Death and Other Holidays is a year in the life of a young woman coming to terms with the death of her beloved stepfather, while attempting to find love in Los Angeles. We are introduced to her friends and family, as she struggles to launch herself out into the world, to take the risks of love—the one constancy in all the change.

Told with a great good humor and under-lying affection for all her characters, Death and Other Holidays announces a brilliant and assured new voice in American fiction.

MARCI VOGEL is an award-winning writ-er, translator, and poet. Death and Other Holidays is her fiction debut, and won the inaugural Miami Book Fair/ de Groot Prize for fiction.

Praise for Death and Other Holidays

“Vogel builds, with lightness and clear eyes, a vibrant world of family, love, and loss. Skillful and charming . . . all made by a voice that trembles between boldness and vulnerability.” —Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt

On Sale November 2018 /// Hardcover /// 112 pages


Let Me Be Like WaterS.K. Perry

“Intimate, ruthless, tender: this book is like medicine for the soul.” —Nina George, author of The Little Paris Bookshop

Twenty-something Holly has moved to Brighton to escape. But now that she’s here, sitting on a bench, listening to the sea sway, how is she supposed to fill the void her boyfriend left when he died?

She had thought she’d want to be on her own, but when she meets Frank, a retired magician who has experienced his own loss, the tide begins to shift. A moving and powerful debut, Let Me Be Like Water is a book about the extraordinariness hiding in everyday life; of lost and new connections; of loneliness and friendship.

Praise for Let Me Be Like Water

“Beautiful in its simplicity, realism and heart. I fell under its spell from the first page.” —The Irish Times

“A beautiful reflection on love, grief and friendship. Witty and profound.” —Fiona Mozley, author of Man Booker-shortlisted Elmet

“A deeply felt, deeply romantic novel of fragmentary, raw emotion.” —Barney Norris, author of Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain

“This beautiful novel about mourning is actually a celebration of life and the regenerative power of friendship. Let Me Be Like Water transcends pain and comforts; it dances in the sky like a kite.” —Denis Thériault, author of The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman

S. K. PERRY was longlisted for London’s Young Poet Laureate in 2013 and is the author of the poetry collection Curious Hands: 24 Hours in Soho. She lives in London and Let Me Be Like Water is her first novel.

On Sale August 2018 /// Paperback /// 224 pages

Rights: Audio

Ways to Hide in WinterSarah St. Vincent

In a remote corner of Pennsylvania’s Blue Ridge Mountains, a woman befriends a fugitive from Uzbekistan, setting in motion this suspenseful, atmospheric, politically-charged debut

After a freak car accident left her widowed, Kathleen has retreated to Pennsyl-vania’s Blue Ridge Mountains, where she works in an isolated corner of the state park. There she meets a stranger who seems to be hiding from the authorities in his native Uzbekistan. As the violent secrets of their pasts unfold, the difference between good and evil proves more complicated than we might think…and a surprising final twist casts Kathleen in a new light altogether.

SARAH ST. VINCENT grew up in a rural Pennsylvania community similar to the one in which this novel is set. She has worked as a legal fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology and as a clerk at the Interna-tional Court of Justice. She is currently a re-searcher and advocate on national security, surveillance, and domestic law enforcement for Human Rights Watch. She frequently writes on these topics and has been in-terviewed recently by such outlets as The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Reuters, NPR, and Bloomberg West. She lives in New York.

On Sale November 2018 /// Hardcover /// 224 pages


The Last Interview

Julia ChildThe Last Interview

A delightful collection of interviews with the beloved Julia Child—”The French Chef”—author and television personality who revolutionized home cooking in 20th century America

This delightful collection of interviews with “The French Chef” Julia Child trac-es her life from her first stab at a writing career fresh out of college; to D.C., Sri Lanka, and Kunming where she worked for the Office of Strategic Services (now the CIA); to Paris where she and her husband Paul, then a member of the State Department, lived after World War II, and where Child attended the famous cooking school Le Cordon Bleu. From there, Child catapulted to fame—first

with the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961 and the launch of her home cooking show, “The French Chef,” in 1963.

In this volume of carefully selected inter-views, Child’s charm, guile, and no-non-sense advice are on full, irresistibly delicious display.

JULIA CHILD (1912-2004) was born in Pasadena, California, in 1912. She is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in American cooking. She died of kidney failure in Montecito, California, in 2004.

On Sale December 2018 /// Paperback

Kathy AckerThe Last Interview

Kathy Acker was a punk-rock counter-cultural icon and innovator of the literary underground. The interviews collected here span her amazing, uncompromising, and often misunderstood 30-year career.

From Acker’s earliest interviews—filled with playful, evasive, and counter-intu-itive responses—to the last interview before her death where she reflects on the state of American literature, these interviews capture the writer at her funny and surprising best. Another highlight is Acker’s 1997 interview with the Spice Girls on the forces of pop and feminism (which reads as if it could have been conducted with a new generation of pop star in 2018).

KATHY ACKER (1947-1997) was a novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright. Her novels include Pussy, King of the Pirates and Blood and Guts in High School. Her work is closely associated with punk rock and experimental aesthetics. She died of cancer in 1997.

About the Editors

AMY SCHOLDER has been editing and publishing progressive and literary books for over twenty years. She is currently producing with Sam Feder the documentary feature Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen.

DOUGLAS A. MARTIN is the author of eight books across genres, including volumes of poetry and fiction. His latest book is Acker. He lives in Brooklyn.

On Sale December 2018 /// Paperback

Hunter S. ThompsonThe Last Interview

A carefully selected volume of rare (and in some cases never-before-published) conversations with the iconic writer, thinker, and rabble-rouser Hunter S. Thompson

More than a decade after his death, Hunter S. Thompson is as popular—and as relevant—as ever. Vigorously political, he anticipated the situation in Washing-ton now. Here, in a collection that ranges from an early conversation with Studs Terkel, to a decade-long exchange with editor David Streitfeld, to his last public interview (no longer available online), his prescience is both exhilarating and profound.

HUNTER S. THOMPSON (1937-2005) was an American author, journalist, and pioneer of the gonzo movement, an explorative means of reporting that merged objectivity with personal engagement and narration. He is best known for his books Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.


Christopher HitchensThe Last Interview

“If someone says I’m doing this out of faith, I say, Why don’t you do it out of conviction?” —Christopher Hitchens

One of his generation’s greatest public intellectuals, and perhaps its fiercest, Christopher Hitchens was a brilliant interview subject. This collection—which spans from his early prominence as a hero of the Left to his controversial sup-port for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward the end of his life—showcases Hitch’s trademark wit on subjects as diverse as his mistrust of the media, his love of literature, his dislike of the Clintons, and his condemnation of all things religious. Beginning with an introduction and tribute from his longtime friend Stephen Fry, this collection culminates in Hitchens’s fearless final interview with Richard Dawkins, which shows a man as unafraid of death as he was of everything in life.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS (1949-2011) was a prolific columnist, literary critic, essayist, and a famously combative and witty speaker. He was a bestselling author who published over 30 books, including God is Not Great,and contributed to The Nation, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair.


BACKLIST FICTION

The Mirror ThiefMartin Seay

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “Audaciously well written . . . the book I was raving about to my friends before I’d even finished it.”

“A deliciously intricate, centuries-spanning tripartite tale of money and mysticism.”

—The Wall Street Journal

“A startling, beautiful gem of a book that at times approaches a masterpiece.” —NPR


Rights Sold: Czech (Grada Publishing), Polish (Wydawnictowo Czarna), Roma-nian (Editura Trei), Russian (Azbooka-Atticus), Turkish (Zeplin)

The Book of FormationRoss Simonini

This bold debut novel—told in interviews—spans 20 years in the rise and fall of the charismatic leader of a seductive self-help movement.

“A sincere and surprising attempt to come to terms with the pain of having a body, and the unnecessary burden of being oneself . . . original, fascinating and humane.” —Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?

“Ambitious . . . strikingly intelligent.” —Publishers Weekly

“Hypnotic, genre-bending.” —Interview Magazine

“Astonishingly well done. [Simonini] is an expert in the spoken word and oral storytelling.” —The Independent


Page 31

Not on Fire, but BurningGreg Hrbek

Winner of the 2016 Lascaux Prize in Fiction

Not on Fire, but Burning is strikingly original—not ex-actly a thriller, not exactly sci-fi, not exactly speculative fiction; it’s an absorbing adventure into the dark heart of an America that seems ripped from the headlines.

“Hrbek’s prose is sharp and trenchant, his voice remark-ably complex yet assured, and this novel is an impres-sive achievement.” —The New York Times

“[Hrbek’s] engagement with themes of loss and recovery and his vibrantly lyri-cal prose style reach a peak in this dark, allusive fantasy.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review


Rights Sold: French (Libella)

The InsidesJeremy Bushnell

The highly anticipated follow-up to one of the best-selling debuts in Melville House history, The Insides is a darkly comic adventure, full of wit, imagination, and suspense.

“Everyone is after a magic knife in Jeremy Bushnell’s gripping supernatural thriller. Each of the characters comes with a fascinating backstory—so intriguing . . . with a hopeful yet creepy ending.” —The Washington Post

“Bushnell’s excellent second novel . . . [is] an off-the-wall tale. The alternating pro-tagonists translates into a very fast read, as does Bushnell’s hyper-realistic prose.” —Publishers Weekly


Rights Sold: German (Albino Verlag)

Rules for WerewolvesKirk Lynn

“You get caught up with these people. You take sides. And then Kirk Lynn confounds your expecta-tions at every turn.” —Greil Marcus

In the tradition of Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, Rules for Werewolves is a visionary debut novel about shelter, escape, family, violence, and dumpster-diving.

“Lynn’s compelling debut novel is a parable about lone-liness, violence, and modern malaise. It is one of the first post-recession, post–housing crisis American novels of truly alienated youth and suburban fear.” —Publishers Weekly

“Lynn is strongest when he illuminates the urge to break free from convention in the face of threats . . . An offbeat glimpse into how resistance to conformity breeds its own kind of conformity.” —Kirkus Reviews


Page 33

Good on PaperRachel Cantor

“Laugh-out-loud hilarious and thought-provoking-ly philosophical.” —Boston Globe

Is a new life possible? Because Shira Greene’s life hasn’t quite turned out as planned. She’s a single mom living with her daughter and her gay friend, Ahmad. Her PhD on Dante hasn’t gotten her a job, and her career as a translator hasn’t taken off.

But then she gets a call from a Nobel Prize-winning Italian poet who insists she’s the only one who can translate his newest book.

“Tantalizingly tinkers with storytelling novelties.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal


The SubsidiaryMatías Celedón

“Powerful, beautiful, and haunting. Every time I read The Subsidiary, it feels both timeless and painfully, undeniably contemporary.” —Alejandro Zambra

Hand-designed by the author with a stamp set he bought in an bookstore in Santiago, Matías Celedón’s The Subsidiary is both an exquisite object and a chilling avant-garde tale from one of Chile’s rising literary stars.

“The form perfectly emulates the gloomy atmosphere of the subsidiary and the broken emotional environment of its employees. With few words, The Subsidi-ary says a great deal.” —La Pollera

“The telegraphic language intensifies the horror . . . A gem of alienation distilled into silent screams in the dark.” —BBC.com

On Sale Now /// Hardcover /// 3 Color /// 308 pages

The Monster’s DaughterMichelle Pretorius

“A historical thriller that reckons seriously with South African politics, an imaginative piece of speculative fiction, and a stereotype-busting roll-er-coaster ride of a novel. I loved it.” —Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife

One sweltering summer, a disgraced young police constable is reassigned to the sleepy South African town of Unie, where she makes a terrifying discovery: the body of a woman, burned beyond recognition.

Her investigation will lead her into her country’s violent past—a past that impli-cates her father, a high-ranking police official under the Apartheid regime, and two very special children, survivors of a gruesome experiment during the Boer War, more than 100 years ago.


BACKLIST NON-FICTION

Eurovision!A History of Modern Europe Through the World’s Greatest Song ContestChris West

Eurovision! charts the history of Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest over the last six decades, and shows how seamlessly they interlink and what an amazing journey it has been.

“A feast for any Eurovision fan. As thorough a history of the contest as anyone could desire.” —Graham Norton

“A succinct, entertaining overview of European life over the past sixty years.” —Times Literary Supplement


AntifaThe Anti-Fascist HandbookMark Bray

A detailed survey of the full history of anti-fascism from its origins to the present day, including inter-views with anti-fascists from around the world

“The first English-language transnational history of antifa, a how-to for would-be activists, and a record of advice from anti-Fascist organizers past and present.”

—The New Yorker

“Enlightening . . . relevant.” —Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

“Incisive and cohesive . . . a crucial intervention in our political moment.” —San Francisco Chronicle


Rights Sold: French (Lux Editeur), Spanish (Capitan Swing)

Page 36

CauseAnd How It Doesn’t Always Equal EffectGregory Smithsimon

The Freakonomics of the sociology world, Cause shows how deeply irrational we humans are, and what we can do about it.

“Enjoyable, eye-opening pop science.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Engaging, provocative, and wide ranging.” —Mitchell Duneier, author of Ghetto

“Spirited and convincing . . . with the playful clarity of Robert Merton and the conscience of C. Wright Mills.” —Liza Featherstone, author of Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation


Becoming LeonardoAn Exploded View of the Life of Leonardo da VinciMike Lankford

A Wall Street Journal 2017 Book of the Year A Spectator 2017 Book of the Year

“Mr. Lankford proposes a great many insights . . . With immediacy and grace, Becoming Leonardo starts on a high note and gets better to the very end.” —Wall Street Journal

“In challenging old clichés and assumptions, and assessing the ambiguous evidence from fresh new angles, [Lankford] paints one of the most intimate and clear-sighted portraits we’re likely to have of such an elusive artist.” —Ross King, author of Brunelleschi’s Dome


Rights Sold: Turkish (Nemesis)

Viking EconomicsHow the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, TooGeorge Lakey

Viking Economics explores the inner-workings of the Nordic economies that boast the world’s hap-piest workers, and explains how we can embrace equality in our economic policy.

“Viking Economics shows us there’s no reason we couldn’t be making far more progress across a wide range of problems. George Lakey is great at explaining why.” —Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org

“This book is an adventure and a field manual for our moment.” —Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark


Rights Sold: Chinese (Heliopolis), Hebrew (Beketa Tov), Vietnamese (Tre)

Page 38

Why I Am Not a FeministA Feminist ManifestoJessa Crispin

A searing rejection of contemporary feminism . . . and an invigorating manifesto for revolution

“Bracing . . . a rare counterbalance.” —The New Yorker

“Perceptive and impassioned.” —New Republic

“The author’s ferocious critique effectively reframes the terms of any serious dis-cussion of feminism . . . Crispin has taken a wrecking ball to the whole structure.” —Kirkus starred review


Rights Sold: German (Suhrkamp), Italian (SUR), Spanish (Los Libros Del Lince), Swedish (Daidalos), Turkish (Zeplin), Slovak (Inaque), Korean (Bookinthegap)

BrolliologyA History of the Umbrella in Life and LiteratureMarion Rankine

A fun, illustrated history of the umbrella’s surpris-ing place in life and literature

“Marion Rankine [is] a delightful raconteur . . . Her charming book presents a whimsical and thoughtful survey of, yes, the umbrella . . . Delicious.” —The Washington Post

“Marion Rankine’s tour through umbrella culture suggests how widely this appar-ently simple accessory has been regarded with reverence, superstition and fascina-tion . . . she is a thoughtful anthologist of the diverse literary examples she collects.” —The Guardian

On Sale Now /// Hardcover /// 192 pages /// 4 color

Rights Sold: Chinese Simplified (ECUS)

English UprisingBrexit and the Mainstreaming of the Far RightPaul Stocker

A timely and important examination of how and why Brexit, Trump and the rise of the far right have happened and the consequences for us all

“English Uprising is an essential guide for what can happen when those in power pander to prejudices over immigration instead of tackling them.” —Owen Bennett, author of The Brexit Club

“A good introduction to the history of racism and xenophobia in Britain, which provides important context to current political debates.” —Daniel Trilling, New Humanist


The Money CultCapitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American DreamChris Lehmann

“A tour de force.” —The New York Times Book Review

In The Money Cult, Chris Lehmann reveals that Ameri-can capitalism has always been entangled with religion, and so today’s megapastors, for example, aren’t an aber-

ration—they’re as American as Benjamin Franklin.

“This is Chris Lehmann at his most biting best.” —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

“Entertaining and erudite.” —Publishers Weekly

“Lively . . . Lehmann makes an important and timely point.” —Kirkus Reviews


Page 40

The Destruction of Hillary ClintonUntangling the Political Forces, Media Culture, and Assault on Fact That Decided the 2016 ElectionSusan Bordo

Updated with a new introduction and aferword, this is an essential guide to understanding the most

controversial and shocking presidential election in American history.

“Susan Bordo brings a scholar’s rigor and a lioness’ heart to this important work.” —Paul Begala

“An important . . . examination of the strange political life of Hillary Clinton.” —Salon


We, RobotsStaying Human in the Age of Big DataCurtis White

In the tradition of Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget, a rousing, sharply argued—and, yes, inspiring!—reckoning with our blind faith in tech-nology

“Insightful…[Curtis White] joins Evgeny Morozov and Jaron Lanier on the front line of critics challenging assumptions about the benefits of technology.” —The Washington Post

“A soulful swipe at science . . . If a word can sum up what he is for, it is ‘kind-ness.’” —The Independent


Rights Sold: Chinese (W.E. Time Digitech)

The Man Who Designed the FutureNorman Bel Geddes and the Invention of Twentieth-Century AmericaB. Alexandra Szerlip

Before there was Steve Jobs, there was Norman Bel Geddes.

“Norman Bel Geddes was volcanically talented and sui generis. In her lively and scrupulously well-researched biography, B. Alexandra Szerlip gives him a deserved place as a key visionary of modernity.” —Nikil Saval, author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace

“A remarkable rediscovery of a man ahead of his time.” —Booklist / American Library Association (starred review)


SPRING 2018Habeas DataStrange StarsA Spy in CanaanCulture as WeaponUnderground FugueLacking CharacterWho’s Who When Everyone is Someone ElseEmpire of Light

FALL 2018ChalkLet Me Be Like WaterDeath and Other HolidaysThe Talented RibkinsWays to Hide in WinterThe Last InterviewJulia ChildKathy AckerHunter S. ThompsonChristopher Hitchens

Backlist FictionThe Book of FormationThe Mirror ThiefThe InsidesNot on Fire, But BurningRules for WerewolvesGood on PaperThe Monster’s DaughterThe Subsidiary

Backlist Non-FictionAntifaEurovision!Becoming LeonardoCause

Why I Am Not A FeministViking EconomicsBrolliologyEnglish UprisingThe Money CultThe Destruction of Hillary ClintonWe, RobotsThe Man Who Designed the Future

Documents

MELVILLE --- HOUSE --- PUBLISHING ---------------------- --- Rights --- … · 2018. 4. 6. · Page 8 Strange Stars David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded Jason Heller